


Summer Night

by onereyofstarlight



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Camping, Fluff, Gen, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-19 12:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22677541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onereyofstarlight/pseuds/onereyofstarlight
Summary: Scott, Virgil and John go camping one summer night.
Kudos: 17





	Summer Night

The crackling campfire was accompanied by the summer song of crickets and the soft groans of three boys who had probably eaten more s’mores and burnt marshmallows than would be advised by their parents had they known the quantity.

“Do we have any left for tomorrow night?” asked Virgil.

“Maybe,” said Scott. “We have graham crackers?”

“I packed an extra bag of marshmallows,” said John with a yawn. “I think we’ll be fine.”

Virgil hummed in response and leaned back to gaze up at the embers rising to the sky. Every now and then he caught sight of a lightning bug dancing on the edge of his vision, the thrill of summer that they brought ever present.

“What do you reckon, Johnny?” asked Scott. “Best holiday ever?”

“Yeah,” he sighed happily. “Thanks for letting me come along.”

At fourteen, John had been deemed old enough to join his older brothers on their annual camping trip for the very first time. Three days with his brothers and two nights spent under the stars, no adults around with expectations on how he needed to act or speak or _be_.

“It’s so beautiful,” he said, looking over at Scott with a bright smile. “Can I sleep out here instead?”

Scott and Virgil exchanged an amused look, both knowing how deceptively inviting the outdoors appeared. The warmth from the fire had yet to give way to the chill of a clear summer night and it was difficult to imagine the way the grass would flatten by morning, complete with sharp rocks digging into skin and the hard, unforgiving ground making it impossible to find a comfortable position.

“John, there are no adults here,” said Virgil with a grin. “You can sleep wherever you like.”

“Great,” said John brightly, rushing over to the tent and dragging out his sleeping bag and mat.

The older brothers turned away to leave John to fuss over his sleeping arrangements, the talk turning to girls and boys and everyone else besides.

“What about you, Johnny?” called Scott. “Found anyone special? You’ll be starting high school next fall, it’s an exciting time.”

“Ugh, no,” said John, looking up at them with an expression of mild disgust. “We had to do our sex education course last term and it just made everyone go nuts. You should have seen the way Jake started drooling over Martha, we nearly failed our group project.”

“You just let us know when it’s time, Johnny boy,” said Virgil lazily. “No big deal.”

The light from the campfire was definitely dying down when John wriggled into his sleeping bag. The dark forms of his brothers moving in sync as they prepared for bed was comforting as he snuggled down and stared up at the night sky with a smile on his face.

He startled at the sudden noise of Virgil dumping his night gear by his head. Scott soon followed suit on the other side.

“You were right,” said Virgil. John couldn’t see his face but he could hear the smile in his voice. “It’s too beautiful to sleep in the tent tonight.”

“I may regret this in the morning,” grumbled Scott.

“Only because you’re an old man,” said Virgil, hitting him with a pillow.

Scott squawked and reached out to retaliate, until John was shrieking with laughter between them and fending off every stray blow.

The three collapsed in giggles and yawns, the night beckoning them into sleep at last.

“I’m gonna go out there,” said John suddenly, looking intently up at the stars.

“You’re damn right you are,” murmured Scott sleepily. “Where in space are you gonna go, spaceman?”

“The Moon,” he said immediately. “Mars, Enceladus, Io.”

“Isn’t Io the one with all the volcanoes?” asked Virgil.

“Yeah,” said John excitedly. “Can you imagine, real volcanoes all the way out there! All its rock chewed up on the inside and melted into magma just by the power of gravity.”

The awe was unmistakeable in his voice. “That would be so cool to see.”

“Anywhere else?” prompted Scott.

“Just, you know, out _there_ ,” said John, gesturing upwards. “Further than we’ve gone before. Beyond Mars, beyond the Kuiper Belt, maybe even all the way to the Oort Cloud. And if we get to interstellar travel in our lifetime, I want to make sure I’m on board.”

“Big dreams Johnny,” said Scott. “That’s awesome.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“Look after you,” he said with an eye roll. “What else?”

“You can’t do that forever,” replied John, giving him his best unimpressed look. It was wasted in the dark. “Really, what are you going to do?”

Scott huffed. “Fly. I’m gonna fly as fast and as high as they’ll let me. And it’s the air force, so that’s pretty fast and pretty high.”

The brothers were silent for a moment longer, each lost in their dreams of the future.

“Virg, what are you gonna do?”

For a moment, there was no reply. Then a deep snore reverberated in the air.

John gasped and giggled as Scott groaned loudly.

“Don’t Scott, he’s asleep.”

“Yeah, so he’ll never wake up now,” grumbled Scott. “We could yell in his ear, see how much noise it takes to wake him. My money’s on a helicopter.”

“I reckon it’ll take a rocket engine.”

In the end, it’s not a helicopter or a rocket engine that wakes him, but a spider scurrying across his hand.

The cheerful chatter of two boys, and then a third, that fills the atmosphere can be heard from a mile away, and the warmth of mounting laughter that has replaced the campfire, keeps them awake into the grey light of pre-dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> Cross posted from Tumblr. Originally posted 19/01/2020
> 
> Thank you for reading!!


End file.
